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Monday, August 02, 2010

quilt along week 9

Welcome to week 9 of the quilt along! This morning I'm posting from Douglas, Michigan. Man, it's beautiful here! My family and I are wrapping up our summer vacation. We've been sleep depriving ourselves for a full week now. We are having a fabulous time! (Despite the lack of sleep.) Today we are headed to South Haven to enjoy some time on the beach before we head home. I'm glad I worked ahead a little on my quilt along last week so I could post this while I was on the road. Plus, I have a lot of other quilty goodness to share this week. Yay!

For this week, all you need to do is to make 4 strip sets...each one is 32 segments long, so they should measure 64 1/2" when they are all sewn together. After all my issues with strips not fitting right, you can be sure that I'm going to be measuring them babies and getting them just right before sewing them to the quilt. It's funny how each quilt teaches you something, isn't it?

For those of you who are quilting along, I'm curious, how are you doing on your quilt?

First of all I love your blog! I've pretty much taught myself to quilt from it! I finished my first quilt about a month ago as birthday present to my mum, and I've got 2 on the go at the moment! I've been following this quilt along - just about, I started late, but caught up and I'm now working on week 8 -only I'm off to Africa on the weekend for 6 weeks for work, so I'll be very behind as packing and planning has overtaken sewing time! But my quilt looks gorgeous (compliments from everyone who's seem the WIP) - my camera is currently broken (perfect timing!) but I hope to post pictures when it's finished!

here's a little tip to make those borders all lay nice and flat and fit!

before you add the solid strips, measure the quilt on each side and take the average of those 2 numbers, cut your solid strip that size. do this for the top and bottom too and on each round of strips. then the next pieced set will fit perfectly-ish and the finished quilt will not wave at you!

it's a beautiful quilt and when i finished my 4 kajillion wips i want to make one!

I made my niece a baby quilt and gave it on Saturday at her shower. She LOVED it. I used a pink cotton sheet and nicey Jane scraps mixed with this and that. It was just lovely and she delighted in it. THANK YOU.Lucy~

After my vacation and move and now the kids sick I'm up to week 6 but thinking I can gain a lot of progress this week. I had a lot of trouble with the strips fitting already as well. Before I sew them they are the exact same size but when I sew they aren't matching up. I'm not the best at easing in fabric so I've been using the seam ripper A LOT. I'm also shocked and happy about how large it is getting. Amazing!

Anyway, I had to finally put it down with some bad spots on it. I'll look at it tomorrow and decide if I'm going to rip it out or leave it as is. The person receiving this quilt for Christmas will not care at all if it's perfect so I'm not going to feel too guilty about it if it has some flaws. Sometimes sleeping on it gives me the motivation to rip it out and make it perfect.

I'm behind because we were out of town, I just finished week 7. Three of my sides went on just fine. The fourth I'm fighting with a bit. I've got a couple squares that are not square so the corner flares out. Going to fix that today. Also it is a bit funny on the other end of that same side. I haven't figured out what the trouble is. I need to pull it off the wall and measure. I can't decide if I stretched the sashing or if my seam allowance wasn't straight when I put the sashing on the pieced row.

I really do love my quilt so far. I'm hoping to get caught up this week, esp. since week 9 will be fast and easy. Thanks again for doing this quilt along!(here is a laugh, my word verification word is CROOKED!)

got my quilt done!i've got one strip that didn't come out quite right towards the end so i have two colored squares where side meets bottom. and it's only the one corner???anyway, thankfully it is a corner so i can hide it against the wall and no one will know. SHHHH!the quilt goes to the quilter tomorrow, and I will get it back on the 10th. by that time i hope to have a camera so i'll be able to take pics.Also i used the remainder of the FQ's cut into 10.5 squares for the backing, and strips of the fabric sewn together for the binding. So it should come out prety nice.thanks for giving us such a nice pattern!

Well,if you had asked this question last week, I would have had to tell you that I was stuck between weeks 5 and 6. Thankfully, after spending some time on it Friday (I had a wonderful day off from work) and some cooperation from my two little ones....I can say that I am almost finished sewing the sashing strips on week 7 and I am going to begin week 8 tonight. Yay! I hope to have pics up tonight. Thanks Amandajean!

Just wanted to say it was lovely to meet you on Saturday! I'm not quilting along because I've got quite a few other projects, but I was so happy to finally meet THE Crazy Mom that I had to comment. Thank you for sharing your time, knowledge, and quilty project!

I am ready to start week 8. I did not get started at the "very beginning" so I am doing good to be caught up this far. I am intrigued as to what we do after week 9. I want to make a queen sized quilt. So do I continue with the strips every other row or do what you have started for week 9?

Hi AmandaJean.. I am way behind, my Jelly roll only just turned up and I have styarted sewing and cutting... A tip that I found works really well is 1. use a walking foot to sew seams together( even though not quilting) and also 2. when sewing lots of seams like this one, try to sew one seam from the top and then one from the bottom, helps with the length issue...Also measuring does help tremendously.... says she who is way behind...LOLThanks and Hugs Dawn x x xps. glad your having a great holiday.

I'm way behind because of a variety of crises, but initially I worked ahead and made my strip pieces into 2x2 blocks and then squared them up before putting them all together into a strip. That way I am sure that it is square all the way down. I hope that makes sense. If not you can look at my flicker photos and see the blocks I made.Anyway, I'm hoping to find time to catch up soon.

Amanda Jean - thanks again for this QAL - I am slowly getting caught up - I am done through week 6 I think. I'm getting there:) All of the little pieces have been challenging for me, for sure. Enjoy the rest of your vacation!

So far so good! When piecing that many squares the importance of a true quarter inch seam becomes very important. I haven't had any problems with this quilt as I have learned that lesson on another quilt. (You're so right about the lessons that you learn with each quilt.) I have one last side to finish up for Week 8 and will be starting on Week 9. YEAH!

I am way behind! I was up-to-to-date til 3 weeks ago when I decided to take some strips loose to 'perfect' them. They are still in a pile in my sewing room! However, its a rainy school hols day today so may get some sewing done this afternoon!

I was almost caught up on one and am now 5 weeks behind on my other two. I know you said this would be twin sized but I'm having a difficult time finding a flat space that isn't on the ground to accommodate my pinning needs. I too am having trouble with my seams matching up but these are for my nieces and nephew. They won't care and it's the little flaws that give quilts character. :-)

Unfortunately I am now three weeks behind. As soon as I buy enough safety pins to get my Denyse Schmidt Single Girl queen sized quilt off the floor (bugging me - got to finish basting), I will be right back on it. Hope I can get away with not having ripple problems.

Thank you so much Kay for giving me permission to cut the long strips to fit!! I posted something about doing that the second week or so but since then have read so much about 'easing' the strips in that the last round I did looks pretty rippley. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why a person couldn't cut them, it looks so much nicer when they lay flat! I wish I wasn't such a rule follower!!